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Monday, 16 October 2017

ALBUM REVIEW: Blackfinger - "When Colors Fade Away"

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 15/09/2017

Label: M-Theory Audio

I cannot find anything to fault here. Blackfinger
have delivered nine tracks of trad doom with style and finesse. Eric Wagner has
put his name to another excellent doom album and this is recommended to any
fans of Trouble, The Skull, Saint Vitus, The Obsessed and so on out there

“When Colors
Fade Away” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). When Colors Fade Away

2). Can I Get A Witness

3). All My SorrowType O

4). My Old Soul

5). After-now

6). Crossing The River

7). Beside Still Water

8). Waiting for the Sun

9). Till We Meet Again

The Review:

Blackfinger's second album once again
has Eric Wagner at the helm on vocals and comes three years after their self
titled debut.The band is split between Illinois and Pennsylvania
and certainly brings the Autumnal melancholy that one associates with those
states. The first album was a mixture of doom and classic rock influences and
reminded me of Type
O Negative in some ways. This second offering, to my ears has ramped
up the doom leanings.

The
title track is up first and makes an effective statement of intent- it delivers
downbeat and downcast doom in the Sabbath vein, while “Can I Get A Witness” also has the blood of Iommi running through
its veins. The nine tracks here all sounds great; the drums are boomy and big
sounding, the bass rumbles, the guitars suitably thick. Wagner is on good form
as ever (when is he not?!) and he keeps his plaintive wail pitched just right-
both in terms of lyrics and technical singing. References to obscure darkness,
the illusion of choice and so on abound. The nursery rhyme reference in “My Old Soul” works, surprisingly, but
it is the atmosphere of the album which really makes for more than the sum of
its parts.

Even
when the band grooves, as it does on “Afternow”,
there is still an undercurrent of menace and despair- which is exactly as a
doom record should be! The track is a great example of a slow groove, it
features a cowbell and the solo, which is excellent. With none of the tracks
exceeding six minutes and most around the four minute mark, the band has their
style of arrangements down. This is not epic doom, but it is doom in the most
traditional form- please note, sludge is NOT doom.

From
the crawling likes of ”Crossing The
River Turmoil” to the more creepy “Beside
Still Water” the record does cover a fair bit of ground- but only within
the sphere of trad doom. This is not a heavy metal record, it does not feature
thrash inflections and has stripped away the classic rock feel of the self
titled album.

By
the time of the melodic “Waiting For The
Sun”, the album is most definitely set in stone- melancholy vibe in terms
of clean sections, lyrics and vocals, riffs that are thick and heavy with
emotional weight rather than aggression. Only on the closing “Till We Meet Again” does the band press
the pedal slightly closer to the metal and a fine groove it is too. Really, I
cannot find anything to fault here. Blackfinger have delivered nine tracks of trad
doom with style and finesse. Eric Wagner has put his name to another excellent
doom album and this is recommended to any fans of Trouble, The Skull, Saint Vitus, The
Obsessed and so on out there. Try to get hold of it before winter
really hits as it suits the atmosphere of Autumn perfectly.

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